The specialty retailer of hardwood flooring is in the crosshairs of a report by television news program “60 Minutes,” which aired a special on Sunday that alleged the company sold flooring with higher levels of formaldehyde than permitted under California’s health and safety standards.

The news has badly bruised Lumber Liquidators’ LL stock since last week, when media reports said the “60 Minutes” report would cast Lumber Liquidators in a negative light. Shares, which traded near $70 last week, have slumped in recent days and were trading near $40. The stock is down over 20% on Monday alone.

The retailer, which generated $1.05 billion in revenue in 2014, said it was in compliance with the California Air Resources Board (CARB), which is the only regulator of composite core emissions. The company said it also adheres to those standards in other regions even though the regulations only apply to California.

“We believe that 60 Minutes used an improper test method in its reporting that is not included in CARB’s regulations and does not measure a product according to how it is actually used by consumers,” the retailer said. “Our chairman addressed the differences and our position on the test methodology but 60 Minutes chose not to include it.”

CBS’s “60 Minutes” reportedly tested the retailer’s floorings in several states for levels of formaldehyde, a cancer-causing chemical. CBS reportedly found that out of the 31 samples tested, only one was compliant, according to Reuters.

Lumber Liquidators competes with national and local retailers of hardwood flooring. The company, which was founded in 1994 and debuted on the public market in 2007, operates 352 retail stores. The retailer and two large competitors — Home Depot HD and Lowe’s LOW — control about one third of hardwood flooring retail market.

Black Friday is already here

This post is in partnership with Money. The article below was originally published at Money.com.

By Brad Tuttle, Money

Many people are upset that dozens of national retailers have decided to launch Black Friday sales on Thanksgiving, thereby ruining the holidayfor workers who can’t spend the day with their families—and also ruining the day for families whose shopping-crazed relatives will ditch them for the chance to score cheap tablets, TVs, and fast fashion at the mall. (According to surveys, millennials are particularly likely to go shopping on Thanksgiving rather than continue hanging out at home once dinner is done.)

But based on the proliferation of broad, often substantial discounts that invoke the phrase “Black Friday” days or even a full week before the actual day arrives, it appears as if Black Friday sales are in effect right now. Deal-tracking sites such as TheBlackFriday.com have rounded up long lists of retailers that have already tried to grab shoppers’ attention by launching big holiday sales under names like “Pre-Black Friday Deals,” “Black Friday All Week Long Sale,” and “Cyber Monday Now.”

One week before Black Friday, AmazonAMZN kicked off its Black Friday Deals Week, throughout the course of which the world’s largest e-retailer is adding new deals as often as every 10 minutes. Likewise, WalmartWMT launched a “Pre-Black Friday Event” on Friday, November 21, with lots of prices that seem on par with Black Friday’s best bargains: LED TVs for under $150, tablets starting at $40, two-packs of women’s fleece pants for $8, and so on. Similarly, Staples is trying to woo shoppers early with 50% off select merchandise and an array of quirky coupons (a flat $100 off many tablets, laptops, and desk-tops), and TargetTGT, Lowes, Sears, and many others are advertising some variation of “Pre-Black Friday” or “Black Friday Now” deals.

Some across-the-board online discounts—the kind normally offered on Cyber Monday—have also surfaced this week, such as 30% off everything at Lands’ End, on top of another 40% off shoes and slippers. On Monday, GapGPS introduced a sale on denim and cords for $25 and under (normally priced up to $70), on the heels of a 50% off all online purchases (for Gap card members) on Sunday.

The early sales shouldn’t come as a surprise considering the overarching trend of retailers attempting to expand the holiday shopping season and grab consumers’ limited gift-purchasing dollars before their competitors can. Kmart launched its first holiday ad in September, and many studies show that the best deals aren’t on Black Friday necessarily, but can appear weeks before or after Thanksgiving weekend, thanks to retailers’ strategic efforts to boost sales during lulls.

An Adweek story quotes several retail experts of the opinion that “Black Friday” basically occupies all of November nowadays, or at least that Black Friday-type sales appear on the scene earlier and earlier each year:

Bear in mind that not all of these early deals are worth getting excited about. The Disney Store rolled out what it’s calling its BlackMagical Friday Sale on Friday, November 21, with discounts “up to 40% off,” but most of the deals—16″ dolls for $20 (originally $24.95), play sets from Star Wars, Monsters University, and Toy Story for $10 (originally $12.95)—seem like run-of-the-mill sales, not can’t-pass-up bargains. What’s more, some of the best early Black Friday deals seem all but impossible to buy. For example, Walmart advertised the Skylanders Trap Team Starter Kit for Wii U over the weekend priced at $37 (full price around $75), but it has been out of stock for online orders and isn’t available at most stores either.

To sum up, right now many stores have some genuinely terrific, Black Friday-esque bargains. But many of the advertised deals aren’t all that impressive, and the biggest discounts generally apply only to select merchandise and may not actually be available for purchase. In other words, retailers are already using amazing discounts and other tricks to get shoppers into stores—where the hope is that they’ll buy plenty of lightly-discounted or full-price items while they’re browsing. This is the gist of how and why retailers use Black Friday as a sales-boosting tactic in the first place, and it’s a strategy that is indeed well underway.

Lowe’s sales climb as home improvement spending stays strong

Lowe’s LOW reported a 17% jump in third-quarter net earnings as consumers continue to open their wallets at home-improvement stores. Here’s what you need to know about the company’s earnings report.

What you need to know: Lowe’s reported a same-store sales increase of 5.1% in the quarter, better than the 4% growth projected by Wall Street analysts but underperforming the increase that rival Home Depot HD posted on Tuesday. Home Depot has beat Lowe’s on the same-store sales metric for years now, though both are performing well as the housing market recovers. The outperformance for Home Depot is notable in the latest period as it indicates hacking headlines that first surfaced in September didn’t drive many away from the retailer’s stores.

Encouragingly, Lowe’s also increased its per-share earnings outlook for the fiscal year. It now sees profit of about $2.68 a share, up 5 cents from the prior view.

The big number: Lowe’s overall sales increased 5.6% to $13.68 billion, while per-share earnings climbed to 59 cents from 47 cents a year ago. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg had projected a profit of 58 cents on $13.55 billion in revenue.

What you might have missed: Home-improvement retail continues to be a bright spot at a time when many brick-and-mortar peers have lamented poor traffic trends at malls and a tepid response from consumers even as the job market improves. Sales at building material, garden equipment and supplies dealers retailers have risen 4.7% in the first 10 months of the year, according to Commerce Department data, growth that exceeds the overall retail and food services industry.

What’s inspiring consumers to spend more? Well home prices are appreciating and the housing market is continuing its recovery in the U.S. As home values increase, home improvement executives have said that consumers are more willing to spruce up their homes if they see it as a more valuable investment. Home Depot’s executives said they were encouraged by projections of economic growth in 2015, and also see further gains to home prices.

Lowe’s lags Home Depot during strong spring rebound

A strong spring selling season after a harsh winter helped bolster sales for home-improvement supplies, but the rebound wasn’t strong enough to prevent Lowe’s from trimming its full-year financial targets.

The guidance cut was a surprise, and perhaps suggests rival Home Depot HD has captured more market share than expected. Lowe’s now sees full-year sales rising about 4.5%, with same-store sales up about 3.5%. Those targets still suggest healthy growth and indicate consumers are opening up their wallets for products for their homes, but the guidance is lower than what Lowe’s LOW expected in May.

“Our year-to-date sales performance, together with our previous assumptions for the second half of 2014, result in a modest reduction to our sales outlook for the year,” Lowe’s Chief Executive Robert Niblock said in a statement.

Home Depot and Lowe’s have reported stronger sales the past few years, bolstered by a recovering housing market. But Lowe’s has consistently underperformed its larger rival in recent years and that trend continued in the latest quarter. Lowe’s total sales jumped 5.7% to $16.6 billion, while same-store sales increased 4.4%. Home Depot’s U.S. same-store sales leapt 6.4% in the latest quarter.

Both are seeing stronger sales for the full year, potentially aided by easing lending standards and a pickup in loan demand that can boost sales as customers tap into credit to purchase homes — that can lead to renovations, people buying large items such as refrigerators, and it can mean professionals buy gear for their housing projects.

Overall, Lowe’s for the quarter ended Aug. 1 reported a profit of $1.04 billion, or $1.04 a share, up from $941 million, or 88 cents a share, a year ago. Analysts had expected a profit of $1.03 a share.

Looser credit could refurbish sales at home improvement retailers

A late spring this year has lifted home-improvement retail sales out of the winter doldrums, and there could be more growth ahead.

Easing lending standards and a pickup in loan demand are potential tailwinds that can boost sales so Home Depot and Lowe’s in the coming months, meaning the retailers aren’t at the mercy of fickle Mother Nature.

Earlier Tuesday Home Depot HD reported better-than-expected profit and sales growth for the fiscal second quarter. Results were bolstered by strong sales of big-ticket items — results Chief Executive Frank Blake said support the view of “a continuing recovery in the U.S. home improvement market.”

Of course, pent-up demand after a harsh winter pushed some sales back into the spring months this year. But beyond that, credit conditions are a key factor. Because Home Depot is so closely tied to the housing market, it’s important that customers have available credit to purchase homes (which tends to lead to renovations), buy large items such as refrigerators, and for professionals to buy gear for their housing projects.

Home Depot’s Chief Financial Officer Carol Tome told analysts that approval rates for the company’s private credit cards have increased for both consumers and professionals. Average credit lines are about $5,800 for consumers and $6,900 for professionals — and Tome said that credit is often used as a financing tool for its customers to make big-ticket purchases.

Amid the strength of the housing market and greater access to credit, Home Depot reported second-quarter sales were strong for big-ticket purchases of appliances, windows, water heaters and flooring. Home Depot’s same-store sales at U.S. stores climbed 6.4% in the quarter. Rival Lowe’s LOW is projected to report an overall increase of 4.1% when it delivers its results on Wednesday, according to a survey by Consensus Metrix.

A recent Federal Reserve survey of senior loan officers highlights what Home Depot has also seen: a broad pickup in loan demand and easing lending standards for many loan categories. For example, 24% of those polled by the Fed say credit standards have somewhat eased for prime residential mortgage loans over the past three months. That’s an improvement from just 13% in the prior period.

Observers say that tight lending standards have been one of the biggest factors holding back the housing recovery, as banks are fearful about the litigation and fines they’ve faced as a result of the fallout from the financial crisis. And while credit conditions continue to improve, Home Depot indicated more can be done, particularly to help the Millennial generation.

“There is something like a third of people aged 18 to 36 living at home with their parents,” Tome said. “Something has gotta move on mortgage financing reform.”

Canaccord Genuity analyst Laura Champine said Tome has called for mortgage financing reform and advocated for greater homeownership among younger adults for a while. Tome, in an interview with Fortune, said Millennials “carrying around all that student debt are not qualifying for mortgages — that needs to change.”

But Home Depot and Lowe’s may be waiting a bit longer before they can count on meaningful demand from home-buying Millennials.

“The Millennial generation has a lot more student debt and is waiting longer to get married, and that is pushing out or slowing the rate of recovery,” said John Lloyd, global head of credit research at investment firm Janus Capital Group.

Home construction rebounded sharply in July

U.S. home construction jumped a better-than-expected 16% in July, reaching a nine-month high and indicating home builders are betting on strengthening demand as the U.S. economy expands and adds more jobs.

Housing starts increased to nearly 1.1 million on a seasonally adjusted annual rate, the Commerce Department said Tuesday. The strong figures were due to growth in housing starts for single-family and multi-family homes, and follows disappointing data for May and June. Observers had projected housing starts to total 963,000, according to a survey conducted by Bloomberg News.

Newly authorized building permits also totaled nearly 1.1 million on a seasonally adjusted annual rate in July, up 8.1% from June.

“Everything I’ve seen so far suggests we should be seeing gradual improvement in construction,” said Gleb Nechayev, senior managing economist at CBRE Econometric Advisors.

Investors are being bombarded with housing data this week, as well as quarterly reports from home-improvement retailers Home Depot and Lowe’s.

The housing sector is benefiting from slower price appreciation and rising home inventory, has inspired more potential home buyers to make a purchase.

But supply shortages in some hot markets and tight lending conditions are problematic. And while the U.S. economy continues to report strong monthly job growth, Nechayev and others are concerned the slow income improvement, particularly for younger adults, makes it difficult for those individuals to make a purchase. Those factors could explain why the housing rebound–when looking at figures for the past several months–has been both slow and choppy.

Weather a popular scapegoat as retailers disappoint

FORTUNE — Executives at some of the top U.S. retailers have leaned on a familiar scapegoat as they unpack why first-quarter sales have broadly missed Wall Street’s expectations: bad weather.

And how many times have they complained about the weather this quarter? A lot, according to an analysis of their conference calls.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc.WMT executives said the word “weather” 20 times in their prepared management commentary for the fiscal first quarter, one of the highest counts among major retailers that have so far reported results. The retail giant said unseasonably cold and disruptive winter weather hurt U.S. sales and drove expenses higher than expected. Sales increased later in the quarter—a comment many retailers have since echoed.

The word “weather” was also spoken 19 times by Home Depot Inc.HD executives, 21 times by executives at Lowe’s Companies Inc.LOW, and 17 times by Macy’s Inc.M. Each of those retailers joined Wal-Mart in reporting first-quarter sales that fell short of Wall Street’s expectations.

Retailers are notorious for blaming disappointing sales on weather fluctuations. In any given year, it can be too cold, too hot, or even too wet, to reach expectations.

“Many retailers, more so today than in years past, seem to be using weather as a culprit for missing revenue and same-store sales targets,” said Alan Rifkin, senior retail analyst at Barclays Bank PLC.

“I am getting convinced we should just pull out the Farmer’s Almanac,” Tome said. “It is really hard to predict what is going to happen.”

Home Depot in recent years has invested in its supply chain, in part to better manage inventory when Mother Nature doesn’t cooperate. While storms frequently slammed much of the Northeast and other regions in the U.S. this winter, Tome said Home Depot still kept salt in stock.

Analysts and investors listening to retail conference calls may grow a bit tired of the weather blame game, though government data show this winter was a rough one. The 2013-2014 winter ranked the ninth driest and the 34th coldest on record, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The Midwest was hit particularly hard as it was one of the coldest on record in several states in that region.

“This is the first time weather has been a factor for six to seven months,” said Ron Friedman, a consumer products consultant for accounting and advisory firm Marcum LLP.

Retailers buy inventory months in advance, and thus have limited flexibility to respond to weather fluctuations. Friedman said Home Depot, Lowe’s and Staples Inc. SPLS are among the retailers that are better positioned when the weather is poor. According to Friedman, those retailers can use a system known as “rapid replenishment,” a process that allows them to place orders as needed from suppliers for basic items such as lawn mowers, shovels and office supplies.

The weather woes this quarter are masking an even bigger issue: weak traffic. Traffic has been problematic as more customers shop online, and many analysts say brick-and-mortar retailers will continue to lose market share to online purveyors. Research and advisory firm Forrester Research said U.S. online retail sales accounted for almost 9% of the $3.2 trillion total U.S. retail sales last year, and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of nearly 10% through 2018. That growth will easily outpace the performance at physical stores, which generally mirrors gross domestic product growth.

However, not all retailers are blaming the weather. Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc. DKS stood out this quarter for its refusal to blame the weather after it issued a disappointing quarterly report that sent its share price down nearly 18% in one day.

Instead, Chief Executive Ed Stack called out a poor performance from the company’s golf business, which has been hurt by a glut of inventory, drastic discounting, and new technology that hasn’t resonated with golfers.

“We didn’t want it to look like we were hiding behind the weather,” Stack said.

Lowe’s profit climbs despite late spring

FORTUNE — Lowe’s Companies Inc.’s LOW fiscal first-quarter net earnings jumped 16% as the home improvement retailer reported higher sales, though growth was somewhat stunted due to the late start to spring.

Lowe’s and rival Home Depot Inc. HD have benefited from a recovering housing market, as well as stronger job and income growth. Both retailers have pointed to home price appreciation as a key metric to watch as a gauge of spending, saying the increased value of the home can help persuade consumers to shop.

The poor weather hurt store traffic at Lowe’s during the latest quarter and hurt sales of outdoor items, though indoor items sold well. Home Depot and Lowe’s executives this week have said results improved in May.

Lowe’s said net earnings rose 16% for the quarter ended May 2, rising from from $540 million, or 49 cents a share, a year earlier to $624 million, or 61 cents a share. Profit in the latest period totaled 58 cents a share on an adjusted basis, excluding tax settlements and asset impairment charges.

Analysts had expected Lowe’s to report an adjusted profit of 60 cents a share on sales of $13.89 billion, according to Bloomberg.

Lowe’s also affirmed its sales targets for the current fiscal year, but now expects per-share earnings of about $2.60, down from the prior target of about $2.63. Lowe’s also announced that it boosted its share buyback plan by an additional $5 billion, for a total authorization of $6.3 billion as of the end of January.

Lowe’s goes big on home-improvement startup Porch.com

Looking for someone to hire for a home project? Ask any associate in any brick-and-mortar Lowe’s, and they’ll now direct you to the web.

Specifically, they’ll guide you to Porch.com, accessing the site either on their own phone, or on yours, or on in-store computers at designated kiosks. Lowe’s has had a quiet partnership with the Seattle-based startup since January, testing it out in 139 stores (most of them in North Carolina), but beginning on May 5 the retail giant will push Porch to customers in all 1,707 Lowe’s stores in the country.

It represents a gamble by a big Fortune 500 company (No. 56 on our 2013 list, with $50.52 billion in revenue) on a tiny, still unknown web startup. (Porch would not share financial data.) The new national partnership will be anything but quiet, with hard-to-miss banners and signage all over Lowe’s stores, and Lowe’s associates talking up the website to anyone who asks for a professional recommendation. “Need a landscaper?” or “Need an electrician?” the colorful posters read. Below that text: “Meet Porch.com, where you’ll find the right professional for your project.”

Porch isn’t just a listing of home-improvement professionals, though that core element of it is what most interests Lowe’s (LOW). The site also has detailed listings of homes in your area, with sales history and deeper data on renovations and the associated costs.

Porch CEO Matt Ehrlichman, who sought to fill a need he and his wife discovered when they were building a new home and struggled to find recommendations for local professionals, says his site is “tackling a problem for the real people across the country, in normal America.” That is: not so much in big cities, as you could have guessed. Those living in apartments may not have a searing need to find carpenters, roofers, or plumbers for hire. Porch.com sees most of its traffic from suburbia, in areas, Ehrlichman says, “where there is true home ownership, vs. renters and condo owners.”

Of course, those homeowners have some other options if they want to get information on local homes. Zillow and Trulia both show nearby addresses and can tell you facts like a home’s most recent selling price. And on the find-a-professional side, websites like Angie’s List and, to an extent, Craigslist, can aid with your search. But Porch does both, while also attempting to be something of a social network. (Ehrlichman compares Porch to Pinterest, since people like to post photos of their completed projects, as well as to LinkedIn.) That latter function is perhaps a distraction, though it is one that these days many websites, even those with the most all-business focuses, seem to feel is a required effort.

Ehrlichman says he views sites like Zillow and Trulia more as partners than competitors. Professional listing sites like Angie’s List are the competitors (though not Yelp, which lists brick-and-mortar businesses). In addition to the listings and social photo-sharing aspect, Porch also posts editorial content under the section “Get Advice,” such as “Five ways to update your bathroom for under $200.” And it recently leveraged its data to create a Porch Home Report released exclusively on realtor.com.

Lowe’s devotees might wonder why the national chain would so wholly endorse a young startup, rather than trying to build its own similar listings site. Richard Maltsbarger, who runs business development for Lowe’s, says it’s because there has been a sea change, across many industries, in the way that we ask for an expert: “The way that we access expertise has evolved.”

Speaking exclusively to Fortune about the national partnership, Maltsbarger explains that there are services for hire that Lowe’s offers through Lowes.com, like installation of flooring or cabinets, but there are more jobs that Lowe’s does not offer (plumbing, for example) and it was looking for a way to cater to in-store customers that seek those services. Of course, many Lowe’s customers in stores are also professionals themselves, who come to buy supplies. Thus, says Maltsbarger, “The other upside for us is it’s a continued value-add for professionals that shop with us.”

One might wonder if it makes business sense for Lowe’s to be directing people to a website other than its own, but Maltsbarger says the company wants to aid customers “whenever and wherever they choose to interact with us.” This is the first partnership of its type that Lowe’s has ever done.

In fact, Lowe’s took a look at a wide range of companies for this partnership and settled on Porch after an extensive search. “A core reason for Porch’s interest to us was their data-based approach,” says Maltsbarger. “They’re bringing to the services marketplace a much more advanced use of actual project data, and they have project profiles of the pros that are in your local market.”

Porch has grown quickly. In six months, it has gone from 25 to 140 full-time employees. It has data on over 100 million home projects. One and a half million professionals, meanwhile, have listed themselves on the site. As Zillow and Trulia do, Porch offers a premium service for professionals — they pay a fee to get targeted promotion in local areas.

Sal Giangrande, the New York Couch Doctor, is one of those professionals, though he does not yet pay for the premium service. Look up “carpentry” on Porch.com in midtown Manhattan and, curiously, his couch-repair business pops up. The site tells you he’s done five projects nearby and gives you the chance to “endorse this pro” if you’ve used him. Giangrande, who operates out of Hyde Park, N.Y., says he hasn’t been able to tell whether he’s getting new business from Porch, but that when he received a call about it he didn’t hesitate to sign up. After all, “you can never have enough business,” he says. That’s why he’s also on Angie’s List, though he says he stays away from Craigslist because he believes people on there are “just looking for a deal.”

Here’s the key — for Porch, anyway: After the company offered to help Giangrande set up a free listing, and after he spoke to a rep for 10 minutes, he says he called everyone in his circle of friends that also have their own businesses and recommended they list on the site. That word of mouth is how Porch has grown, up until now. “The web has definitely changed everything for the better,” he says. “My biggest tool is the Internet.”

Porch is already on the radar of many home professionals that use the Internet; now it hopes the big backing of Lowe’s will introduce it to those who still like the smell of old-fashioned hardware stores.